Professional Independent Communicators - Toronto

A few times a year, you make it to one of IABC/Toronto’s Professional Independent Communicator events – you hear a great speaker, learn a few things and shake hands with folks you recognize from the last event you went to.

But how much do you know about the other people in the room and what they can do for your business – or how you can help them?

Find out who to ask when you need help

“We don’t have specialists down the hall, we have to create our own links,” said Patricia Davies, PIC’s Director of Events. “We’re all in business. We need each other.”

That’s why Dec. 7 is your chance to shine. At “Show, Share, Socialize” you can impress your colleagues what you’ve got. Highlight your award-winning design, talk about that sticky situation you just helped a client through, or hand out excerpts from your upcoming eBook.

How you want to present your business is entirely up to you. By the end of the evening, we hope you’ll have some solid connections that will help your business grow.

Is collaboration a good thing for your independent business? Tune in to this short podcast with Davies and PIC’s chair Donna Papacosta where they talk about the event, ideas and success stories.

If you would like to be part of our showcase, please email Davies to let her know you’re coming.

How to prepare

Marketing your own business not one of your strengths? This is a great event to talk to other successful indies about what works for them. When trying to figure out how to demonstrate your talents:

• Think about your work: “This is who I am, here’s what I do.” How do you do what you do?
• Look at your current or past projects. What can you highlight?
• Bring something tangible. Can you create a handout?
• Remember the basics. Check your supply of business cards and dust off your LinkedIn profile – your information doesn’t need to be glamorous, but you should make sure it’s available.

What are you waiting for?

Not only is this a great opportunity for you to network with your colleagues, it will barely make a dent in your marketing budget: just $12.50 for IABC members or $22.50 for non-members. The show and share will run from 6:30 until 7:30, then we’ll move to the Bell Lightbox for a bit of pre-holiday socializing. Claim your spot and register now!

Details at a glance:

• When: Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. (setup at 6:15)
• Where: Room 303, Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, ON
• Socializing at the Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street (corner of John/King)

In this short podcast, PIC director of programming Pat Davies explains what our December 7, 2011 meeting - Show, Share, Socialize - is all about. She discusses with PIC chair Donna Papacosta the advantages of showcasing your work and getting to know your fellow PIC members. Come out to this event to meet PIC writers, designers, marketing specialists, PR experts and other independent practitioners. The group will then move to the elegant Bell Lightbox to socialize. (Hint: Come out to build relationships with PIC members, even if you don’t want to showcase your own work.)  See all the details on the IABC/Toronto website.

Listen here: Indy Cast 30

Does social media bring in business?

For PIC panelists Susan Crossman, Andrew Schiestel and Amy Sept, the answer is a resounding yes! For both Susan and Amy, social media is their main source of referrals; for Andrew, social media is his business.    

About six months after writer Susan Crossman of Crossman Communications started blogging, people started noticing and contacted her. Susan reports three quarters of her revenue comes directly or indirectly through her social media channels and feels her time spent blogging and on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is more than worthwhile.

Not-for-profit consultant Amy Sept of Nimbyist Communications uses Twitter as both a personal and professional networking tool. For Amy, using social media to communicate is second nature, having being active on message boards before today’s social media tools were invented. Amy told us that all her business leads came to her through social media, including two contracts through Twitter.   

Digital marketing and social media specialist Andrew Schiestel of tbk creative is also an early social media adopter. Andrew spoke about a social media campaign for a law firm that wanted to launch a class action lawsuit. Instead of using costly traditional newspaper or television advertising, Andrew developed a “Take your body back” Facebook campaign, attracting 5,000 followers and enough potential participants for his client to launch the lawsuit.

While reading Andrew’s website, I noticed a law professor remarked this was the first time Facebook was used to attract participants to join a class action lawsuit. PIC members whose clients include litigation lawyers should take note! 

For a more detailed write-up including benefits of being active in social media and dos and don’ts, go to PIC member Sue Horner’s blog post, Social media can be magic. 

By Sheldon Gordon 

Tom Kaufmann, the founder of TK Enterprises Inc., a sales and marketing consulting firm, advises PIC members to market themselves as “problem-solvers” rather than simply as communicators.

In his wide-ranging Marketing on a Tight Budget presentation on September 7th at Metro Hall, he told a PIC audience to “promote your expertise along with your products and services.”

He suggested members who cold call use a script to introduce themselves and ask prospects questions in order to draw them out. “The more you talk, the less you learn,” he cautioned.

Emphasizing that PIC members are in sales, he outlined five stages in the buying process, from need identification to post-purchase execution. “Walk with prospects through this process at their own pace,” he urged. “Don’t drag them into the next stage; they’ll come when they’re ready.”

Develop a prospect data base but be realistic about who to include, he advised. “You can’t sell to everyone. Identify a typical-customer profile and eliminate those who aren’t serious prospects.  Also, do your homework on prospects, and be able to follow your sequence of contacts with them through the data base.”

In order to stay top-of-mind among clients, Kaufmann suggested that members email them a quarterly newsletter filled with “victory stories,” helpful tips and news of upcoming courses and seminars.

Other relatively low-cost investments he cited were business cards, advertising materials and networking meetings. Kaufmann rated phone calls as the #1 inexpensive marketing technique, followed by networking.

He recommended that members create a website to bolster their credibility, to provide background on themselves and their services and to offer a sign-up for their newsletter. He also advocated other online initiatives such as blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, LinkedIn profiles and email signatures (with Web address and photo). “Let people know what you do through your signature,” he said.

Sheldon Gordon is an independent corporate communications professional.